Special Episode! AwardsWatch Podcast: New Oscar Rules and Preview of the 79th Cannes Film Festival with Special Guest Christina Birro

Special cross-over episode! On episode 344 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, AwardsWatch Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello, and Pop Culture Confidential’s Christina Birro to preview the 2026 Cannes Film Festival and also discuss the newest changes within the Academy for the upcoming Oscars and beyond.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h05m. We will be back next week with a live episode from the 2026 Cannes Film Festival talking about the highlights of the first weeks of films. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

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